Category Archives: Review

So, as I told you guys yesterday, I went on a little shopping spree. One of the things I bought was the Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper (who invents these names anyway?) in number 10, Glorious Aquarius. There was a 1+1 sale action, so for the same price I also picked up the Essence Colour & Go in number 147, Miss Universe, because I figured it would look amazing beneath the Glorious Aquarius topper. I’ve combined them on my nails (I’m still admiring my fingers while typing this, haha) so it’s about time to start my review!

When Essence updated their products, they came up with 6 Nail Art Special Effect Toppers, which is a response to the increasing popularity of nail art worldwide. If you wanted flakies, holographic or magnetic effects, fuzzy nails, caviar nails, newspaper print nails, nail art stickers or something else, you often either had to look between more expensive, specialized brands, or try a DIY tutorial (like the one I’ve got on newspaper print nails!). But search no further, because Essence can help you out with ALL of those.

The nail polish line I’m discussing is their Special Effect Toppers, which, as I mentioned previously, consists of 6 different types of effects. The line includes 02 Circus Confetti, which is a transparant polish with multi-coloured glitters (a lot of purple, with specks of orange, red, green and blue), 10 Glorious Aquarius, which I will discuss in a minute, 15 Glitter on Me, which takes me back to the nineties, when my mum owned a transparant polish with slender bars and rectangles in mostly silver.
Next up is 16 Cool Breeze, which according to Essence is a jewel effect. It is a bit foggy sky blue and contains ditto flakies. I’ve tried these in the store on my nail (don’t tell the store owner, haha) because I was doubting between Glorious Aquarius and this one, but I felt like it didn’t transfer a lot of flakies to my nail, so I didn’t buy it.
And last but not least, the two newest ones in line are 17 Only Purple Matters, which is again a glitter topper with a lot of purple and some hot pink glitter, and 18 Fly Firefly Fly, which is a glow in the dark top coat.
The Essence Nail Art Special Effect Toppers cost about €1,89.

So, how about 10 Glorious Aquarius?

I started with two thin layers of Essence Colour & Go 147 Miss Universe, and actually it took surprisingly long for my nails to dry. They’re also impossible to wear with just one layer, because the polish turned out to be quite transparent for such a dark colour. Miss Universe is a very dark blue colour with blue and green shimmers. It looks amazing in the bottle, but needs a couple of layers on your nails before they match the colour and beautiful shimmer in the bottle.

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of only Miss Universe on my nails, but I will update this post as soon as possible. So, next I added one layer of 10 Glorious Aquarius, and wow, it makes my nails look like some underwater version of galaxy nails! Glorious Aquarius consists of a transparant polish, filled with different sized (hexagon) glitters in silver, dark green, dark blue, sky blue and … orange. Yes, orange. For some reason the orange matches reaaaaalllly well with the cold colours without demanding all your attention. I simply love it!

(I’m sorry for the picture being a bit blurry, but it’s already getting dark and it was really difficult to try and get a clear image)

I must admit: nail polishes are one of my biggest weaknesses. As I am someone who like looking a bit over the top, I own the most ridiculous colours of nail polish. Yesterday, I was admiring my collection, when I noticed that none of the trending colours at the moment were present in it! I didn’t have any decent nudes, pastels or a nice coral colour!
So today, being the nail polish lover that I am, I headed directly to the nearest shop (Kruidvat, for my Dutch and Belgian readers), and took a look at their collection.

I’ve always loved the Essence collections -they’re cheap, the bottles are tiny (I have so many polishes I hardly ever finish one) and their quality is great for such a low price.

The first polish I picked was from their brand-new Ready For Boarding collection. The collection consists of an eyeshadow palette with 6 colours and a little guideline, two lip-cheek creams in pink and coral, a blue luggage label, a little make-up bag, hand&body wipes, double end eye pencils and obviously nail polishes!

They have a base coat, which should peel off rather than chip off, which could be really easy when you’re on vacation -no need for nail polish remover! Furthermore, the collection consists of 5 colours, all for €1,49: 01 Sending You Kisses, 02 Beauty On Tour, 03 Exits On Your Right, 04 Via Airmail! and 05 Destination Sunshine. I bought 05 Destination Sunshine, which is a pastel, sweet tint of yellow.

The second polish I chose is also from Essence, this time from their Nude Glam collection. I picked 01 Cotton Candy, which is, as the name already indicates, a pale pink, a lovely nude colour. This one was €1,29.

I was continuing my journey through the make-up corner, on my way to the Catrice booth (another one of my all time favourite brands) when a box with bargains demanded my full attention. Most of it was not really interesting, but I managed to find this 05 Nude Or What? colour from a previous Essence Season Of Extremes collection for only €0,50! It’s a cute mix between lilac and grey, but still a nude. I think it’ll be perfect for winter.

Last but not least, I eventually reached the Catrice booth, where I picked up 820 Pimp My Shrimp, an orangey coral, for €2,49 -I’ve wanted a coral for soooo long now, yay!

So far I’ve already tried Pimp My Shrimp, Destination Sunshine and Cotton Candy. They all need at least three (thin) layers, Cotton Candy even needed four, and it’s still not opaque. Unfortunately, I only have a picture of Cotton Candy on my nails. I tried Destination Sunshine on my toes, which made me feel very summerish, but apparently the world isn’t ready for pastel yellow painted toe nails yet, so I removed it before I took a picture. And I had Pimp My Shrimp on my finger nails a few days ago, but they got covered with face paint (I volunteer working with children) after only one day so that one had to go too. If I apply them again, I’ll take pictures and update this post.

So this is Cotton Candy. Four layers of it. It’s still a bit transparant, which I love actually. It gives a slight hint of a french manicure. If you want an almost transparant polish, I can recommend this one as well, but I really wanted to see the pastel pink so I patiently applied layer after layer. Right now, it’s day two and they haven’t chipped at all, except for a tiny little chip on my left thumb.

I guess you guys may have noticed by my long absence, that I’m currently right in the middle of my exams. But there’s more: Today, June 10th, is my twentieth birthday! I’m finally officially no longer a teenager, though I still feel very childlike.

Anyway, upon checking my inbox, I found an e-mail from E.L.F. Cosmetics, giving me free shipping with a purchase of at least €10, as a birthday gift! I never really ordered something from them, but I read a lot of great reviews on how their products are very cheap and yet of great quality.

So you might be curious to find out what I ordered?

The first thing I really wanted to try was their eyeshadow palette. I went for the Limited Edition 32 Colours Palette in Everyday Brights, because all other palettes just had a bunch of brown shades, and I know I won’t use more than 5 of them. The Everyday Brights palette has a few green and blue colours that look really great for summer, they remind me of the sea.

Next on my wish list was a coral lipstick. I watched a lot of Youtube reviews on the E.L.F. lipsticks, and I really loved two of their colours: Captivating (left) and Nostalgic (right). Captivating is a bright coral, whereas Nostalgic is rather old, dusty pink.

Last but not least, I also really wanted to try their highlighters. Again, I picked two colours: Golden Peach (left), which I think gives more of a warm, summerlook, and Lilac Petal (right), a very light pink. I’ve never tried a highlighter before, so I just picked two colours which seemed best for me after reading some reviews.

In the beginning of July, when I’ve finished my exams and my package has arrived, I will write a big review on these products. I also have a few other products I would like to review for you once I have enough time, so stay tuned!

A while ago, I got a mail asking if I wanted to try the Little Diva bodylotion. Obviously, I was very excited to try this, so I hit reply and told them I was looking forward to it. I received a package with the bodylotion, and here’s a little review about the product!

For the ones among you who don’t know Little Diva, it’s a Dutch bed/bath/home textiles, cosmetics, tableware and stationary brand that is characterized by four themes: leopard, pink, jeans and gold. Sounds good, right? Little Diva stands for everything that runs through a young woman’s mind. Being loved, being sexy, glamorous, cute, naughty, but most of all: it allows women to be themselves and let them Dare to dream.

So, as I said before, I got to test the Little Diva Bodylotion. It comes in this glamorous, golden tube, with baby pink printed letters and a cute little chain with a retro heart and a bow. It looks really great in your bathroom!

Then, off to the content of the tube. The bodylotion has a very sweet smell, not candy-ish, but very flowery with a hint of fresh, green apple. The texture is, well, the same as most bodylotions you’re familiar with. Creamy, but not running. The most remarkable feature of this bodylotion is obviously its smell. It moisturizes and leaves your skin feeling soft, just like most bodylotions are made for. My skin is softer after use, but not significantly softer than it would have been with other lotions I have. Nevertheless, I really love it, because of its smell. Even hours after applying it, I can still notice a slight smell. Even other people noticed how nice and sweet I smelt (or smelled, depends if you prefer British or American spelling).

Anyway, if you’re interested in this bodylotion or in any other Little Diva product, be sure to check out their website. The items are available at Douglas, V&D and many other Dutch stores. For my Belgian readers, you can purchase Little Diva stuff at Marie Marie (Antwerp) or Vanderhaegen (Waregem). Unfortunately, Little Diva is not purchasable on line, but I made this post anyway because I’m from Belgium and I loved this too much not to share it with you guys!